Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-08-12
THE STORY IN DETAIL.

\ Graphic Account of the Horror, Giving
tho circumstances In Full.
CHIyAOo, August 1.-THE Chicago
Tunes special from Forest, Ills, says. All
the railway horrors in the history ct this
country were surpassed three miles east OF
Chatsworth, last night when an excursion
train On the Toledo. Peoria and Western
road dropped through burning bridge,
aud over one hundred people were killed.
and four times that number more or less
badly injured. The tram was composed
of SIX sleeping cars, SiA day COACHES and
chair ears aud three baggage cars. +; was
carrying nine hundred and sixty passcn-
GERS, all cNcuT,iouistS. and was bound for
Niagara Falls The train had been
made up all along the line OF
the Toledo Peoria and Western
road and The excursionists came from
various points in Southern Illinois, the
bulk uF them, however, coming from Pc
orr. Waau the '., "rrw Cut ut "snria
a; e o'clock last evening It v"as l"Hd"d 10
its utmost capacity. Every berth of the
NlN size i'tA- Wa NaAhflF sAAlA NlfN Nft Nfs -
carried sixty people each. The train was
50 heavy that two engines were hltched to
it, and when II passed this place it was an
hour and bali behind time Chaisworth
the next station e,lst of here, d sin miles
oil. and the run there was made
in seven minutes, and SO The TERRIBLE
momentum of those fifteen coaches and
two heavy engines shooting through space
At the rate OF
MILE \ MINUTE
can be understood 40 stop was made at
Chatsworlh, and on and on the heavy
train with it, living freight sped through
the darkness OF the night Three miles
east of Char,worth Is a little slough, where
the railroad track crosses dry run about
ten iect deep and fifteen feet wide. over
this was stretched an ordinary wooden
trestle bridge, and AS the excursion train
came thuud,rug down on it what was the
horror ot the engineer on the front engine
when he saw that this bridge was
alire. Right up before hlS
eyes leaptd the bright flames
aud the next instant he was among them.
There was no chance TO stop. Had there
been warning II would have taken half a
mile TO stop that un-rusniug mass ui wood,
iron and human lives, and the train was
within one hundred yards OF
THE KEO.rpNGuED MESS sENGERs OF DEATH
before they flashed their fatal signals into
the engineers face But he passed over
ia safety, the first engine Keeping the rails.
As it went over the bridge fell beneath II,
and it could only have been the terrific
speed OF the train which saved the lives Of
the engineer and his fireman. But the
next engine went down, and instantly th"
deed of death was done Car crashed into
ear, coaches piled one on top ui another
and in the twinkling OF an eye nearly 100
people found instant death and fifty more
we're 80 hur. they could not live. As iur
the wounded, they were everywhere. Only
the sleeping coaches escaped. and is the
startled and half-dressed passengers came
tumbling oul Of them, they found such a
scene of death - Is rarely witnessed. and
such work to do that it seemed as II human
hands were utterly incapable. 1t lacked
hut five minutes of midnight. Down IN the
ditch lav the second engine, EugI-
neer MCChntock dead aud Fireman Apple
gate badly injured On top were piled the
three baggage cars, one on top OF another
LIAEA CHILD's CARD HOUSE
after he had swept II with his hand.
Then comes the siN day coaches. they
were teltscupcd ~ cars never were before,
and three OF them were pressed INTO Just
space enough for one The second car had
mounted off its trucks crashed through
the car ahead OF it, crushing the wood
work aside like tindcr, and lay there
resting on top of the aXles while every
passenger in the front car was laying dead
aud dying underneath. out OF that car
but four people came alive. On top OF the
second car lay the third, and although the
latter did not cover its bearer as completely
As the one beneath, its bottom was smearcd
with the blood of its victims. The other
three ears were not so badly crushed, but
they were broken and twisted in every
way, and every crushed timber
and beam represented
A CRUSHED HUMAN FRAME,
and broken bone. Instantly the air was
filled with the cries OF the wound and
ShriekS of those about TO die. The groans
OF men, the screams UI women, united lo
make an appalling sound, and above all
could he heard the agouizing walls OF little
children Is in some instances they lay
pinned alongside their dead parents And
there WAS another terrible danger TO he
met The bridge WAS still burning and
wrecked cars laying on and around the
tieryely burning embers. Every where Ia
the wreck were wounded and unhurt men,
women and children, whose lives could be
saved il they could he gotten out, hut
whose death, and death in most horrible
form, was certain il the twisted wood of the
broken ears caught fire. AID 70 tight the
IRE, there was
NOT \ DROP or WATER
and only some fifty able bodied men who
had still presence of mind and nerve
enough TO do their duty. The only light